Lightweight boats shine as Vikes close out the year in San Diego

VICTORIA – The University of Victoria’s men’s and women’s rowing teams were well-represented at the San Diego Crew Classic over the weekend, racing to strong results against some of the top collegiate programs in North America.

The women’s varsity lightweight eight crew led the way for the program, finishing off the event with a first place finish in the A. W. Coggeshall Final. The three-team final saw the Vikes finish with a time of 6:56.20 ahead of UC Berkeley (7:30.65) and UC Irvine (8:05.28).

Victoria also claimed top spot in the women’s eight petite final, rowing to a time of 6:36.96 to beat out San Diego and UC Santa Barbara.

“There are lots of Stanford years on there and now we add our name to it,” said women’s head coach Rick Crawley of the A. W. Coggeshall lightweight trophy. “They led start to finish and won by boat lengths. It was a well rowed race and they were unfazed by the rough conditions.

“The heavyweights also rowed an excellent race winning the b final for the second straight year. Both crews had excellent times and are relatively young, so this bodes well for the future.

The lightweight men also had an excellent event, racing their way into the A Final on Sunday and finishing in second. Victoria closed out the Secretary of the Navy Cup Final with a time of 6:15.78 behind only MIT (6:13.90).

The varsity men’s eight also made their A Final, finishing fourth in a tough six-team field one week after winning the Brown Cup on home water. Ahead of the Vikes (5:50.27) were three excellent program: California (5:35.50), Yale (5:39.01) and Stanford (5:50.02).